One of my (several) favorite Open Law Lab“images of law” is the blog post titled: Law for Normal People. It includes a graphic with this text that pretty much sums up everything that makes legal self-help center and public law library program management so confounding:

Legal self-help is a bit of a crap-shoot unless you have official (i.e. court sanctioned and current) legal forms or the guiding hand of an attorney, but sometimes one has to plug along the best one can.

Public law librarians not infrequently get requests for legal separation forms. Oregon has, rather had, legal separation forms, and still, sort of, does have them. But, well, read on:

Do you need help with housing, children, crime, social security, benefits, debt, a small business, and other Real People legal matters?

Sometimes you just need to start with one organization, or one website. From there, you’ll find another layer of legal resources and legal assistance referrals, and from there even more – and so on, and so on.

(Note: Small claims court $$ limits vary from state to state. In Oregon, it is $10,000.)

Excerpt: ‘Small claims court cases are like any other legal disputes, but minus a zero, says Jordan Farkas, a Canadian lawyer who’s built a practice advising people who have $25,000 or less at stake. “Most lawyers look down at it,” says Farkas, 31. He started small claims work as a law firm associate to pick up litigation experience, and he can be found online as “Mr. Small Claims Court.”….’ (Link to full article.]

Before paying for legal forms online (or from a book), check to make sure they are forms the court will accept and to find out if your county or state already makes the correct forms available free of charge.

It’s not unusual to find “cheap,” “low-cost,” and “free, if …” legal forms online that judges and public law librarians know are available totally free AND are up-to-date, AND are official (that is, they will be accepted by the court where they need to be filed).

It’s also not unusual to hear about legal papers drawn up and filing fees paid, only to have the case dismissed or delayed because the wrong forms were filed or local court instructions weren’t followed.